August 12, 2007

Castor is dead. What is the essence of senescence?

This blog has been dead for over a year. Castor died in September last year. Take a look at his picture. He was fit for Darius. Castor was a magnificent animal, with a will-power to match his 700 kilogrammes.

Everything is gone. His saddles, his harnesses, all his trappings. Just pictures left. And a sad feeling almost every day.


The word of the day is senescence. The sense and power of aging. That which is to be.

Edgar Allen Poe wrote a poem called Ulalume. No one knows for certain why Poe named the poem Ulalume. It is possible, however, that he coined the word from ululare, a Latin word meaning to shriek, howl, lament, or wail. But instead of using that Latin infinitive as he found it, he cut off the last three letters and replaced them with ume (pronounced oom) so that the word would rhyme with other words in the poem.

The poem is about aging. Both dim and productive.

And now, as the night was senescent,
And star-dials pointed to morn-
As the star-dials hinted of morn-
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
Out of which a miraculous crescent
Arose with a duplicate horn-
Astarte's bediamonded crescent
Distinct with its duplicate horn.

The night becomes old. We dwell on it coming and we dwell on it leaving us. Like life. For ourselves and our horses.

This blog will take a new turn. I like the idea of smells and sounds. But they will come from somewhere else.

Stay tuned. Senescence is also a creative process.